PathoLi (Konkani Style dumpling with sweet coconut filling )

PathoLi, Konkani Style dumpling with sweet coconut filling
Coconut is the Mother Goddess of all Konkani cuisine. There would not be Konkani cuisine without Coconut. So when I read that Jihva event for month of Jan is on Coconut, I immediately decided to participate.

PathoLi is the Queen of Konkani cuisine, while Pathrode is the King, and offcourse Dalitoy is our Kuladeva. These three are a must for the Ganesh Chaturthi and other festivals where the food is the center of attraction.

Tiramisu

Its party time! Everyones is the holiday mood for Christmas and New Years. Whats a holiday without any dessert? So here my post for today-Tiramisu. Tiramisu is an Italian dessert with layers of sponge cake and coffee, topped with cheese.



My Friend Manisha had made this Tiramisu a few months back and I got to taste it and take home a big portion of it. It was delicious. I decided to post the recipe on my blog and saved some pictures of it. It was lying in drafts for a long time and whats the best time to post it than the Christmas Holidays.

2-3 packets of sponge fingers/lady fingers/marie biscuits
300 gm/10 oz mascarpone cheese, a mild Italian cream cheese
250 ml/8 fl.oz. whipping cream
200 gm/8 oz chocolate chips, preferably Hershey's
1 tbsp espresso coffee
2 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp icing sugar

Heat whipping cream in a sauce pan, dissolve chocolate chips till it melts completely. Set aside.
Beat cheese and icing sugar in a bowl and keep it ready.
Dissolve espresso coffee powder in a cup of warm water.

We will assemble the tiramisu in the baking pan/rectangular dish in which you want to serve the tiramisu. Dip the biscuits in the espresso coffee and lay it on the pan in 2-3 layers. Lay a layer of cheese and sprinkle cocoa powder all over. Lay another layer of biscuits, cheese and cocoa powder. Pour the whipping cream with melted chocolate. Chill it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours. You can make it a day ahead.

Just before serving sprinkle a thin layer of cocoa powder on top.

The Layer Finger in the ingredients is not okra. Its like cake rusk available in the supermarkets. You can use Marie Biscuits from the Indian store instead.
Do not keep the tiramisu out of the fridge for long. The whipping cream layer may start to melt.

"Happy Holidays" & "Feliz Navidad" to everyone from me & Manisha

Pathrode or Patra Gashi & Usli

Konkanis do eat a lot of veggies and leaves that are unusual to the rest of the Indian community. That includes Bamboo shoots/keerlu, raw jack fruit/kadgi, bread fruit/jeev kadgi, kantola/pagiLa, special type of mushroom grown in Karkala-aLambe and much more. The leaves includes colocasia/pathrode paan, tere pan, maraLva paan, taikiLo, etc. I dont know names for these in any other language. These are not the recently acquired taste from Thai or Chinese cuisines, but they are the authentic Konkani delicacies. Konkanis are believed to be migrated from central Asia to Goa and then to the rest of the world. I personally think our ancestors must have been to Thailand/china or some part in South East Asia on the way! Our cuisine has so much in common with them. Having said so, today I would like to share a popular konkani delicacy today- Pathrode.

Pathrode is steamed colocasia leaves rolls stuffed with spicy rice and dal mixture. The leaves are knows are aloo/pathra in gujarati, 'Elephant Ears' to some, sold as 'taro leaves' in the Chinese supermarkets. You can buy taro roots from the Indian store and grow the leaves in your backyard. The plant needs good sunlight for a healthy growth. When not cooked properly they do itch and thats because of the needle like calcium oxalate crystals in the leaves. They are broken down on cooking. Read more here

10-12 colocasia leaves
1 cup rice
1 cup moong/green gram
1 cup coconut
pinch of hing
1 inch cube tamarind
12 roasted red chillies
salt

Soak rice and moong with enough water for 8 hrs or overnight. You could use 2 cups of rice or 2 cups of moong instead. But I like this half & half combination the best. Wash and drain. Set aside.
Grind coconut, roasted red chillies, tamarind into a smooth paste. Add hing and the rice and moong and continue to grind until its the lightly coarse like the idli rava. Do not use much water, keep it as dry as possible. Add salt and mix well.

Clean the colocasia leaves, and pat them dry. Remove the middle hard veins and any other hard of the leaves with a small knife or a peeler. Do not bother to leave the tender veins they will cook well.

On a clean surface, place the largest leaf upside down, spread the paste allover the leaf, place another leaf on top. Continue stacking up to 7-8 leaves.


Fold the edges along the length, spread the paste on the sides.



Roll the leaves. Tuck in the top corner to make the roll look perfect. Spread the paste between every folds.



Steam cook for 45 minutes. Better overcook then undercook. Actually they don't get overcooked easily. You can check by inserting a toothpick and it should pierce easily without the hardness of the leaves and should come out clean without any raw batter sticking. Let it cool down before you slice them into rounds.

Ways of Serving Pathrode
1. Quick and most adored way is to cut the patrode into rounds, pour a spoonful of fresh coconut oil.


2. Pan fry the rounds with a spoonful of coconut oil. Fry till the edges are crisp

3. Gashi Pathrode - Serve with any konkani coconut sauce curries or make gashi exclusively for pathrode as follows

Gashi is a coconut sauce. Make a smooth masala paste or maasolu by grinding shredded coconut, tamarind and roasted red chillies. Roast 1/4 tsp urad dal, 3-4 methi seeds, 1/4 tsp coriander seeds and add it to the paste and continue to grind for a minute. Boil the masala with little water and 1/2 onion chopped. Add the pathrode pieces to it and cook on low flame till the water evaporates and the gashi becomes thick.

4. Pathrode Usli - usually made with leftovers

Heat 3 tsp oil of oil, make a seasoning with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves, broken red chillies and onions. Fry till onion is golden brown. Add chopped pathrode, little salt and fry on low flame till ii becomes little crisp.

Check out similar recipes by Shilpa & Vee

Chana Masala

I grew up in a small town near Mangalore in a Konkani family. My mom always cooked authentic Konkani food. She never has garam masala in her kitchen, even till today. In fact, my mom hates the smell and taste of Garam masala, she finds it very strong and pungent. When I moved out of my town to pursue studies and career, I was introduced to a variety of north Indian and non Konkani dishes by my friends. It was amazing to learn so many new things and tastes.

My mom in law thought me a basic gravy with tomatoes using Garam Masala. She used to make egg curry with that recipe.

Copyrights & Disclaimer

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All the pictures and contents published on Dalitoy are protected by the Copyrights law. You may not copy, edit or publish any content including the text and pictures without prior written permission from me.
All my work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
Copyright © 2006-2007 Manjula/Dalitoy

Disclaimer
All the opinions expressed here are personal. I am not a certified nutritionist. Follow any instructions at your own risk.

Mangalore Buns

In Mangalorean cuisine, Buns is different from Bun. Its not plural form of Bun! Simply called as "Buns". It is a deep fried form of Sweet Banana Bread. Usually served for Breakfast with sambar or chutney on the side.

Barley Soup with Chunky Vegetables

I have planned to eat more healthy everyday. Why wait for Jan 1st when I can start it today? My plans is to cut down on rice and chapathi portions in half and to double the vegetables in my diet, include all varieties of cereal grains in the diet. I always loved to experiment with food to produce healthy recipes packed with nutrients without compromising taste. Here is the recipe for Barley Soup with Chunky Vegetables, which I did yesterday.

1/2 cup pearl barley
1 carrot
1 fennel
1 leek
1/4 capsicum
1/2 cup any vegetables of your choice
1 head broccoli/cauliflower
garlic salt/plain salt
fresh or dried herbs like oregano, basil, parsley, cilantro

Before I start with the recipe let me tell you more about the ingredients.

Barley is a cereal grain that is high in fiber and nutrients. It has more fiber than any other cereal grain. Most of the grains like rice and wheat are hulled and all the outer layer would have been removed before it comes to your plate. Barley too is hulled, but the nutrients left after milling is more than any other grain. Read more about barley on WHFoods.

Fennel on the left; Leek on the right

Fennel is the plant that looks like celery, but has a big pale green bulb at the bottom and celery like stalks on the top. The leaves resemble dill leaves. See the picture above. Very fragrant and add great flavor into the soup. Leek is like a giant green onion plant/scallion but is milder than onion. Leeks Lower LDL Cholesterol While Raising HDL Cholesterol. Read more about Fennel and Leek on WHFoods.

Lets start cooking now.
Cook barley in the pressure cooker with enough water to 6-8 whistles. Let it cook down.

In the meantime, Wash the fennel and leek. Separate out each stalks, wash each of it picking by hand and wash down all the dirt collected in them. Wash and Chop all the vegetables into chunks of 1/2 inch or smaller. You can transfer the content of the pressure cooker to a stock pot or continue in the same vessel to save on cleaning. Add carrot, fennel, leeks to the barley and cook on medium flame. You can add any more vegetables of your choice. When almost done, add capsicum and broccoli. Add dried or fresh herbs. Add garlic salt and pepper.

Serve hot with croûtons.

This chunky vegetable soup is a complete meal in its own.

Mooga Usli (Sprouted Green Gram Stir Fry)

Sprouted Green Grams are my all time favorites. It can be raw, added into salads, chats etc. Sprouted green gram gashi called kirlail moogan gashi is the festive side dish made during Mahalaya avamasya. Will post that recipe sometime in the future. My favorite recipe is the Stir fried and lightly cooked green grams.

2 cups sprouted green grams
3 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp urad dal
pinch of hing
a tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat oil in a kadai, Splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add sprouted green grams, add little water and salt. Cook on medium flame. I cook it for just 5-10 minutes, I like mine crunchy. You can cook your desired consistency. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and add. Optionally you can garnish with fresh coconut.

Serve it as a side dish or snack. I like it for breakfast too.

How to sprout?
Soak 1 cup of green gram/moong in 3-4 cups of water. Soak it overnight or for 8-12 hrs. Drain and rinse water 2 times with water. You can tie green grams in a wet thin cloth. I just spread it and cover in a wide pan. Let it rest for another day till the sprouts have grown.

Konkani Style Fish Fry

Fish Fry with rice flour on the right, rava fry on the left
The konkani style of making fish fry is very different from the rest. Most of my friends get surprised to find out that we use hing in fish! Its very unusual to use hing in any non-veg dishes. But some of the konkani sea food cuisines do have hing.

In the MangaLooru area the sardines/bootai-kannada/peDvo-konkani, macarel/bangude-kannada/raaju-konkani, pomfret/maanji-konkani, small white fish boLinjeer-tuLu/motyaLe-konkani are the konkani favorite fishes. These are the small fishes unlike salmon, catfish or seer. They are fried along with the bones. I am quite bored of pomfret, the only Indian fish found here in US. One of my freind told me that smelt fish is like motyaLe and I made konkani fish fry with it. It was delicious, similar taste as motyaLe.

Special care has to be taken to clean the small fishes. They have a lot of scales and the end result largely depend on how well the fishes have been cleaned. Most of the konkanis do remove the head and the tail while cleaning fish. So the fishes in my pictures are well trimmed.

cleaned fish
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4-1/2 cup rice flour or soji rava.
chick pea size hing
salt

Clean and cut fish. Sprinkle some salt and set aside for 30 minutes.

In the meanwhile, dissolve hing in little water. Mix the chilli powder. Add little salt. If you choose to use rice flour, mix that in and make a thick paste. Drain any water from the fish and add to the paste. Apply the paste to all the sides of the fish. Set aside for another 10 minutes.

If you have chosen to use soji rava instead of rice flour, spread some rava on the plate, take individual fish pieces that is already dipped in chilli powder and roll it in the rava and set aside. Do this with all the pieces. Set aside for 5 minutes. By doing this the rava soaks in a little sticking to the fish and will not drop into the oil when frying.

Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying. Fry the fish on both the sides till deep red.

Egg Curry

Unlike the other recipes for Egg Curry, this curry has a thin sauce with pieces of onion floating around. The only thickener here is tomatoes. The sauce is very common North Indian red curry sauce. As a kid, I always ate Konkani food, because my Mom is a all Konkani cuisine lady. But my Mom-in-law is open to all kinds of kitchen experiments, she is one who introduced me to a lot of non Konkani foods. This is her recipe for Egg Curry.

2 Hard boiled eggs, cut into halves
2 medium onion
2 tomatoes
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste, optional
1/4 bunch cilantro

masala powders
1/2 tsp chilli
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric

for the seasoning
1/4 tsp jeera
1 sprig curry leaves

Hard boil eggs, cut them into 2 halves. Set aside.
Chop onions, tomatoes.
Heat oil in a kadai, add jeera, curry leaves. Add onions and fry till they are wilted. Add ginger garlic paste. Saute for a minute. Add all the masala powders and stir. Add tomatoes, cover and cook on a medium flame till the tomatoes are mushy and turn into a thick paste. Keep stirring so that they don't char in the bottom.

Add water to the desired consistency. Add salt, bring the sauce to rolling boil. Place egg halves on the sauce so that they float on the top. Garnish with cilantro on top. Put on low flame and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Spanish Lentils / Lentil Soup

A few month back my eyes ran through a packet of whole brown lentils in the local produce shop. Being a health and fitness freak, I wanted to make some recipes with whole lentils. I tried making Indian dals and curries out of it, they were OK but never wanted to try it again. Later I gave up on it. Recently, my friend Manisha who is from Spain, gave me this recipe for Spanish Lentils. She says this is a gourmet food served in restaurants in Spain. Its usually served on the side of the Bread. Spanish paav bhaji!? So here it goes.

Spanish Lentils is very healthy, delicious and also very easy to make. It is somewhat between a soup and side dish. You can eat it like a dip for bread or simply eat it like a soup. The dish is loaded with fiber and veggies that just a bowl makes a complete meal.

The soup is made with whole brown lentils which are available in the local supermarkets. But you can also make this soup with whole masoor and or any other lentils from the Indian Store, but remember you need whole dals with the outer layer. Thats what makes it so healthy.

1 cup lentils
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 medium potato
1/2 bell pepper
1 tomato
1 carrot
2 tsp oil
pepper
1 bouillon cube or stock cube of your choice
1 tsp lime juice

Soak lentils for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside. Chop all the vegetables into cubes.

In a pressure cooker, heat oil. Fry onion and garlic for a minute. Do not brown them. Add all the veggies and fry for another minute. Add lentils, pepper and stock cube. Add water just enough to cover the lentils. Cook for 2-3 whistles. Adjust salt. Usually the salt in the bouillon cube is enough. Squeeze some fresh lime juice.

Serve with bread.

I used Knorr chicken bouillon cube. You can also use veggie stock cube or any other of you choice. More on bouillon cube here

Batate Song (Spicy Potato Curry)

Batate Song served with chapathi
Batate Song is the spicy potato curry very authentic to Konkani cuisine. Its usually made with rice and dalitoy, so that the blandness of the dal is well balanced with the spicy song.

2 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
4 red chillies or 1 tsp chilli powder
1 inch cube tamarind
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp oil

Chop onions into cubes. Boil whole potatoes, peel and chop into cubes. Soak tamarind in a little water, squeeze the pulp and discard fiber.
If using whole red chillies, roast them in oil and grind along with tamarind into a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok, splutter mustard seeds, add onion and fry till they are wilted. Do not brown the onions.
If you opted to use whole chillies add the chilli-tamarind paste.
If you opted for chilli powder, add the chilli powder to the onions and fry till aromatic. Add the tamarind pulp.
Add salt and 1/2 cup water, bring it to a boil. Add chopped potatoes and simmer on medium flame.

Serve with rice and dal or chapathi.

You may also add peas or cauliflower to the song. But authentic batate song has only onion and potatoes in it.

Chana Chaat

Chana Chaat is one of my hubbys favorite. He has childhood memories of eating chana chat from the street vendors in India. He was able to recollect how the street vendors made it and we tried it at home. The results were wonderful. Now I make it very often.

1/2 cup black chana/kaDLe
1 cucumber
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
2 green chillies
1 tomato
1 lime/lemon
3 tsp chat masala
cilantro

The chat is made from sprouted chana. Hence you need to plan it a day or two in advance. To sprout chana, soak chana overnight or for 12 hrs in water. Drain the chana and let it rest in a colander. You can also tie it in a thin wet cloth. Rest it for another day and you can see nice long sprouts.

Now to make the chat, boil potatoes, peel and chop. Chop cucumber, onion, tomatoes, green chillies and mix together with the chana. Sprinkle chat masala. Squeeze the lime juice. Mix well.

Garnish with cilantro. Serve as an appetizer/salad or like a snack.

Kai Holige (narla ubbaTi)

HoLige is a flat sweet bread with savory filling covered in a bland covering. Kai Holige/Coconut puranpoli/narla ubbaTTi is a specialty in Mangalore, now MangaLooru. hoLige is same as obbaTTu; In MangaLooru kannada we call it hoLige, while the rest of the Karanataka calls it obbaTTu. In Konkani it is ubbaTTi. kai/tengina kai or narlu is coconut. The brahmins in MangaLooru always serve hoLige during the festivals/weddings or any special occasions.

kai hoLige

for the filling/hooraNa
2 cups shredded coconut
2 big cubes jaggery
2 tsp rice flour
2 pods cardamom

for the outer layer/kaNaka
2 tsp milk
2 cup extra fine rava/chiroti rava
2 tbsp maida
1/2 cup oil

To make the filling, grind the shredded coconut to a smooth paste without adding water. Make jaggery syrup in a kadai. To make the syrup first boil 1 tbsp of water and add jaggery to it. Keep boiling on a medium flame till all the jaggery dissolves and starts bubbling. Keep boiling for another minute, add the coconut paste and rice flour. Keep stirring till the mixture becomes hard and all the liquid is evaporated. Add cardamom powder. The mixture should have no liquid in it and be hard enough to hold the shape when formed into balls. Let it cool completely.

To make the outer filling, mix rava, milk, oil, maida to form a soft ball. Add water as needed. Set aside for 30 minutes.

making the kai hoLige; on the left-hooraNa or the filling, on the right outer covering or kaNaka

To make hoLige, divide the filling and the outer cover into equal number of portions. Form into balls. Let the filling be bigger than the outer cover. Roll the outer cover into small circle. Place the filling, fold all the sides and cover the filling entirely, like how you would do for stuffed paratas. Continue to roll into big cirlce, like a chapathi.

Fry on medium flame on a flat griddle without any oil/ghee. Cool and store in a air tight container. Stays upto a week.

Serve with a tsp of ghee on top.

A few months back when I did a research on how to make kai hoLige, I did posted a query on konkani recipes yahoo group and had got a few suggestions. This is the compilation of various tips given by the members there. Special thanks to Jaya V Shenoy, the author of well known konkani cookery book and Shilpa of Aayis Recipes

Daiya Povu (Poha in Sweetened Yogurt )

Yogurt, Poha and Sugar
Daiya povu is a simple quick snack. This always reminds me of summer holidays of my childhood. We did not have a refrigerator at home and craved for some cold, soothing snacks to beat the heat. My mom would prepare Daiya povu. Its simply Poha in Sweetened Yogurt. An ideal snack for ikra ganTe tannik i.e a light snack between breakfast and lunch usually had around 11 am.

1 cup poha/povu/beaten rice
1 cup yogurt
sugar as desired

Beat the yogurt, add water if its very thick. Dissolve sugar till the yogurt is sweet as desired. Mix in the poha and let it soak. Serve.

Kids surely love this.

Batate Gojju (Konkani Style Potato Salad)

Batate Gojju is a classic Konkani Potato Salad. The blandness of the potatoes is well spiced with chillies, tamarind and a dash of hing. The hing rules the flavor in this dish.

2-3 medium size potatoes
4 green chillies
small piece tamarind
1/4 tsp hing powder or small piece solid hing

for seasoning
1 tsp oil
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal, optional
2 dry red chillies

Boil potatoes in enough water. Peel the skin and mash it. Leave some small lumps of potatoes. Microwaved potatoes do not yield good results, so I recommend you to cook the potatoes in a pressure cooker with enough water.

Soak tamarind and extract pulp. Add to the potatoes.

Finely chop green chillies. In a mortar and pestle, crush together green chillies and a tsp of salt. Add to the mashed potatoes. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and mix well. Add little water and bring it to the semi solid consistency.

Make a seasoning of mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and broken red chillies, add to the potatoes.

Serve with rice and dal or chapathi.

VaingaNa TaLasaNi (Eggplant Stir Fry with roasted garlic)

Eggplant Stir fry or taLasani or authentically made with a special breed of eggplant/brinjals called guLLa. guLLa looks like a green brinjal but has a dull skin, its not glossy like the brinjal. guLLa is grown in large quantities in MaTTu, a village near Mangalooru(Mangalore) and those are called MaTTu guLLa.

Eggplant taLasaNi

I do not find guLLa in the place where I live and hence make taLasaNi with brinjals called vaigaNa in konkani. So my taLasaNi becomes vaingaNa taLasaNi instead of the authentic guLLa taLasaNi .

3-4 small Indian eggplants
6-8 garlic cloves
3 dry red chillies
1 tsp oil

Clean and cut the eggplants into cubes. Immerse in salt water. Set aside
Crush garlic cloves. Cut them if the cloves are big.
Heat 1tsp oil in a kadai/wok, fry garlic till golden brown. Add broken red chillies and fry. Drain the water from the eggplants and add to the kadai. Add enough water till the eggplant is covered. Add salt. Cover and cook on low flame.

I cook the eggplants till they are over cooked and get a little mushy. This way they absorb more flavor. You can cook it to your desired consistency.

Serve with rice and dal.

Kuleeth Saaru & Usli (Horsegram soup & Stir fry)

Saaru in Konkani or Kannada is a general name for any thin flavored liquid that has to be eaten with rice. Saaru can also be savoured like a soup. Konkanis do often use the liquid from boiling any grains/legumes for making saaru.

Kuleeth Saaru Served with rice

Kuleeth/Kulthi or Horsegram is a brown flat legume. I had written more about Kuleeth in the past along with Kuleeth Dosa.

Kuleeth is cooked with lots of water, the liquid is separated and used to make saaru. The cooked kuleeth grains is used to make Kuleeth Usli, a side dish that can be eatedn along with chapathi or rice or just like a snack.

1 cup kuleeth
6-7 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
2 dry red chillies

Cook kuleeth in a pressure cooker for about 5 whistles. Drain the liquid from the kuleeth to a sauce pan. Add slit green chillies and salt and bring it to a boil. Keep boiling till the green chillies impart hotness into the saaru.

For the seasoning, roast garlic in a tsp of oil, fry broken red chillies and add to the saaru.
Kuleeth Saaru
Serve with rice or drink like a soup.

Kuleeth Usli
Make kuleeth usli or a stir fry snack with the cooked grains.
1 cup cooked kuleeth
2 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
hing
1 tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai/wok. Splutter mustard seeds, add slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add cooked kuleeth, salt and a little water. Cook till all the water evaporates. Garnish with coconut.

Kuleeth Usli

Serve as a side dish or breakfast or snack.

Hing Chutney

Asafoetida/Hing chutney is a perfect dish to go with Dosa or idlis, a special treat for the hing lovers. Its also easy to make and a fool proof chutney. There is very less chance that you will goof up with it.

1 cup shredded coconut
2-4 dry red chillies
small piece tamarind
small piece hing or 1/4 tsp hing powder

for seasoning
mustard
curry leaves

Heat a tsp of oil and roast red chillies in it. If you are using solid hing then fry the hing in oil along with the chillies. Grind coconut, tamarind and red chillies into a smooth paste. When almost done add roasted solid hing and continue to grind. Transfer to a bowl. Make a seasoning of mustard and curry leaves and garnish the chutney. If using hing powder, add the hing to the seasoning instead of grind it.

Konkanis usually make coconut masala/maasolu. If you often make the coconut, tamarind and red chillies paste, then make some extra and store in the freezer. You can later defrost and add roasted hing and convert it to hing chutney.

Breakfast Poha with caramelized onions( piyav bajjil pova usli)

Poha in hindi/ avalakki in kannada/ povu in konkani is a well known homemade fast food item. Its very easy and quick to prepare and very tasty too. There are many authentic konkani style pohas. The one I am posting today is not an authentic konkani style. Will post the authentic konkani style poha some other day.

Poha comes in different varieties depending on their thicknesses. Extra thin/paper avalakki, thin, thick or extra thick. I used to buy the thin poha and my pova usli never used to come out good, it would form lumps when I dipped the poha in water. Later I learnt from my friend Seema that thick poha works out better for poha usli.

1 cup thick poha
4 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
4-5 sprig cilantro
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 medium onion
1/2 tsp sugar, optional
1/4 lemon/lime, optional

1/2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp urad dal, optional
1 tbsp peanuts, optional

Soak poha in water, drain the water in a colander and let the poha rest for about 15minutes. The poha puffs up and absorbs in all the water.

Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a kadai/wok, splutter mustard seeds, jeera, add urad dal, peanuts and fry till the peanuts are fried. Add finely chopped green chillies and chopped onions. Fry till the onions are partially caramelized. Add turmeric and salt. Add the poha and mix gently. Optionally, you can squeeze half a lime/lemon and add sugar. Garnish with cilantro.

Coconut Chutney

Mangaloreans make pure coconut chutney. It does not have peanuts, or chana dal/putani like in other places. A fully grown fresh coconut is ideal for a coconut chutney. Make sure that it does not have dry coconut/copra or any rancid taste in it.

1 cup fresh shredded coconut
5-10 green chillies
tiny piece of tamarind
tiny piece of ginger
5-6 sprigs cilantro, optional
5-10 coriander seeds, optional

For seasoning, optional
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves

Grind coconut along with green chillies, tamarind and ginger. When almost smooth add broken cilantro and coriander seeds and continue to grind. Take care not to heat the motor of your grinder or blender, this will cook the coconut which we want to avoid. Transfer to a bowl. Adjust salt.

You can season the chutney if you would like to. Splutter a few mustard seeds in a tiny bit of oil and the fry the curry leaves in it. Add to the chutney.

Adding cilantro and coriander seeds is optional. Some people do add jeera instead of coriander seeds. But I like the coriander seeds better. You may also add a small clove garlic of garlic to the chutney.

Serve on the side of idli or dosa.

Shevei (Fresh Rice Noodles)

Konkani Style homemade rice noodles
Shevei is rice noodles made from the scratch at home. Authentic konkani way of making sevei is a time taking task. But once you have tasted the shevei you will know its worth all the efforts.

To make shevei or fresh rice noodles you will need the following equipments
A grinder or mixer grinder or a heavy duty blender to grind the batter
shevei dante or A shevei maker- This is a special equipment designed to press noodles, available in the Mangalore area. The main part is the ricer to press the rice balls into noodles, that looks almost like the chakkuli/chakli maker. The shevei maker has a sturdy stand with 3 legs that keeps the ricer elevated at a height to ease the process of collecting the noodles. It also has handle sturdy handle on the top that helps in the uniformly squeeze action.
Traditional Shevei maker
Do not worry if you do not have a shevei maker. Use you chakkuli/ricer maker to press the noodles.

Shevei can be made of white rice or the parboiled rice, i.e. the kerala rosematta rice.
2 cups white rice and 1 cup shredded coconut or
2 cups parboiled/rosematta rice only

Soak rice in plenty of water for 9 hrs. Grind the rice and coconut into a paste. The rice should be of the consistency of the rava. Add salt.
Heat a kadai, pour 1/2 tsp oil in it and rub the whole surface of the kadai with oil. Pour the rice paste and cook on a medium flame. Keep mixing the paste till it turns in to a thick lump. see the picture. This process is called aLache in Konkani.
Rice paste made into a lump
Let it cool for 5 minutes. While the paste is still hot, take a tablespoon of the batter and make small balls. Steam the balls for about 10 mins.
Steamed rice balls before pressing into noodles
Put 2 rice balls at a time in the shevei maker and press the noodles. The noodles needs to be completely cool down before they hold their shape. Spread the noodles on a damp clean cloth. You can cover the noodles with a damp cloth and spread another layer about it.
Shevei piled between layers of damp cloth

There are 3 well known ways to eat Shevei and I love all the 3 ways. I usually eat it in 3 courses, once with each of the following methods

Serve with Sambar.

Sweet Coconut milk often is paired up with Shevei for sweet tooth. Make a thick coconut milk from a fresh coconut. Add jaggery to it. You may also add some cardamom powder. If you are planning to use canned coconut milk, do not bother. Canned coconut milk has a coconut oil taste to it, which is nowhere close to the fresh coconut milk.

I also like to drizzle a spoonful of fresh coconut oil and mango pickle on the shevei.

Churmundo (Wheat flour ladoos )

This is one of the all time favorite ladoos among the Konkani people. The ladoo is made of wheat flour and not maida. It has very little ghee in it, made dry and explodes into powder in the mouth. This was my elder brother AshokaNNas favorite ladoo and my paternal aunt used to make never ending dabba full of Churmundos for him whenever we visited her. You cant stop at one, believe me!

This recipe with the wonderful picture was sent to me by my jhaava, Nayana Shenoy. Jhaava in Konkani means husbands brothers wife. Husbands elder brother is called bhaiyyo. Nayana is a great cook. You will see many more recipes from Nayana in future.

Chana Besan - 1/3 Cup
Chapati Atta - 1 Cup
Powdered Sugar - 1 Cup
Ghee - 1/4 Cup
Cardamom Powder - a pinch

Seave besan and wheat flour separately and set aside.
Heat ghee in a pan. Add chana besan and fry on medium heat for about a minute. Add chapati flour and keep frying until you get a nice roast aroma. Remove from flame and keep aside to cool.
When completely cooled, add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and mix well.
Make laddoos by firmly squeezing a small portion of the mixture in the palm. Ghee may be added if the mixture does not stick together to form firm laddoos.

Store in air tight containers.

Spinach Song (Spicy Spinach Curry)

Spinach Song is a spicy curry made with chilli powder and tomatoes with a roasted garlic. This tastes somewhat near to konkani batate song, and hence my konkani name for it "Spinach Song". You can add soy chunks or soy protein granules to it, optionally.


Spinach Song is not a authentic konkani dish. My my mother-in-law came across a similar recipe somewhere in north India a few years back and she gave a konkani touch to it. She has been making this since then and everyone in my family loves this.

1 bunch spinach
10-12 soy chunks(badi), optional
3 garlic cloves
2 ripe tomatoes
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder

Clean the spinach and chop. Set aside. If you opt to add soya chunks, soak them in warm water.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic Put turmeric and chilli powder and fry until they are puffed. Add tomatoes and fry on low flame for 10mins until the tomato is cooked and turns into a thick puree

Add spinach, salt and little water bring to boil. Do not add more water. The leaves cook fast and reduces to small quantity within no time. Squeeze the water from the soy chunks and add them. Cover the pan and cook on low flame until the spinach is cooked and soy chunks are soft.

Serve with chapathi or rice and dal

Konkani Style Stir Fry (Upkari)

Upkari is a Konkani style Stir fry that is made with bare minimum spices and very little oil . Its very mild and the very taste of the vegetable rules. You can relish on just the upkari like a snack or a salad. Upkari can be made with french beans, long beans, gherkins/tenDLe/tonDekai and many other vegetables. Usually only one kind of vegetable is used and can be combined with potatoes.
If you are new to upkari, I recommend you try this first time with french beans.

French Beans Upkari

2 cups french beans
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp urad dal, optional
3-5 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp coconut, optional

Wash, clean, rinse french beans in enough water. If the beans are over grown then remove the strings on the sides. Chop the french beans to 1 cm size.

Heat oil in a wok/kadai, splutter mustard seeds. Now add urad dal and fry till light brown. Add slit green chillies and curry leaves, fry for a moment. Add chopped french beans and salt. Add just enough water till all the french beans are soaked. Cover and cook on medium flame till the french beans are tender. Now add coconut, if you opt to and gently mix into the upkari.

Serve with rice and dal or with chapati. I also like to eat it like a snack.

Cucumber Dosa (Taushe doDDak)

Cucumber Dosa can be made sweet or spicy. Today I made the spicy version for the breakfast. This can be made with Rava or Rice. The Rava cucumber dosa is instant and does not need to be preplanned. However for the rice cucumber dosa you need to soak rice for 4-5 hrs, hence needs a little foresight.

1 cucumber
1 tbsp shredded coconut. fresh or frozen, optional
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
1 cup rice or rava

Wash and peel the cucumber. Grate on a fine grater and set aside.

If using rice, soak rice for 4 hrs. Wash and rinse the rice a couple of times. Use the liquid from the cucumber grind the rice. When the rice is still coarse, add green chillies and ginger and grind little till they are crushed. The batter should be the consistency of the idli rava/rava. Add salt. Mix together the rice batter with the grated cucumber.

If using rava, mix the rava with the grated cucumber. Add just enough water so that the rava soaks and puffs up. Crush green chillies and ginger and add to the batter. Add salt.

Heat the griddle and make dosas. These dosas are eaten without any side dish. Optionally you can serve with sambar or pickle.

I use brown rice to make this dosa. You can use brown or white rice.

White bean and Malabaar Spinach in coconut sauce (tingaLavare bendi )

Konkanis love tingaLavare. TingaLavare or white beans is the most commonly used bean in the konkani cuisine. In this recipe tingaLavare is paired up with the malabaar spinach and the sauce is ofcourse the konkanas favorite-coconut. I have already said more about malabaar spinach here. If you do not find malabaar spinach, substitute with spinach.

TingaLavare bendi served with rice

1/2 cup shredded coconut, fresh or frozen
8 red dry chillies
1/2 inch cube tamarind
6-8 cloves garlic
1 bunch malabaar spinach or spinach
1/4 cup white beans or tingaLavare

Soak tingaLavare overnight or for 8-10 hrs. Discard the soaked water, rinse and drain a couple of times. Pressure cook the beans and set aside.

Wash and rinse spinach, drain the water. Chop and cook with the cooked beans for 5 minutes.

In a tsp of oil roast the red chillies. Grind coconut, tamarind and roasted red chillies to a smooth paste. Add the paste to the cooked beans and spinach, add salt and boil for 5minutes.

Roast garlic in a tsp of oil and season the curry.

Serve with rice.

Tempered Buttermilk (paNNa taak )

In those times when coke and sodas did not exist buttermilk ruled the rural Indian beverage market. Tempered Buttermilk is still a popular beverage in the villages and suburbs of India. Buttermilk is not yogurt/curds. It is the residual liquid after churning all the butter from the yogurt. The buttermilk made this way has a sour and tangy taste and the healthy bacterias developed in the fermentation process aids in digestion.

The cultured buttermilk available in the supermarkets in the USA is not the original buttermilk. They are not made by churning the butter from the yogurt, but by adding cultures to the milk in a industrial process.

Authentic konkani meal always ends with a glass full of tempered spicy buttermilk, paNNa taak. I tried making buttermilk the traditional way at home but could not achieve good results. Hence I use home made yogurt from the low fat milk to make paNNa taak.

Making tempered buttermilk is quite an easy task.
1-2 cup low fat/fat free yogurt/buttermilk, preferably home made
1 green chilli
small piece of ginger
a pinch of hing

for tempering, which is optional
1/4 tsp oil
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves

If using hing paste, dissolve hing in a tsp of water and add it to the yogurt. In a Blender, blend together yogurt, green chilli, ginger and hing. Add enough water to make it 4 cups. For the tempering, heat little oil , splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves. Pour the seasoning to the spicy yogurt mix.

Serve chilled if desired. This recipe yields 4 cups of buttermilk.

Traditionally the drink is thin, if you like the drink thick, add more yogurt. Adjust the green chillies according to the desired hotness.

Red Hot Bhindi Curry(Benda Song)

Song is a authentic konkani side dish made with tamarind and red hot chillies. Its made very spicy and often paired up with the konkani dal ,daLitoy. The mildness of the dal balances well with the red hot spicy song. Song made with potatoes, Batate song is the most popular kind of song. I had no idea that song could be made with different other veggies too. When my Mom-in-law made song with bhindi i was amazed. I did learn a lot of other curries that resembled the song too. Will post them in future.


2 cup chopped bhindi or okra.
2 medium size onions
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 inch cube tamarind
2 tsp oil

Wash okra/bhindi in plenty of water. Rinse them thoroughly, drain all the water. Slice them and set aside

Soak tamarind in a cup of lukewarm water. Squeeze the pulp and discard the fiber.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok and fry the onions on a low flame till golden brown. Its very important to fry them till golden brown. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and fry till aromatic. Add the tamarind pulp and another cup of water. Bring it to a rolling boil. Add the okra and salt, stir and cook on medium flame. Cook till all the water is evaporated.

When its still cooking,if the water is very less in the kadai, add some hot water. If the okra is cooked when the sauce is still thin, put on high flame and evaporate most of the liquid.

Serve with rice and Dal or chapati

Malabaar Spinach Curry ( vaali ambaT)

vaaLi in Konkani or basaLe in kannada is a green leafy vegetable available in Mangalore area. Its a kind of spinach but the leaves are thick, succulent and has a tender edible stem. It grows as a creeper, and usually grown on a structure to hold the vine called vaaLi mantap much like how grapes are grown in the vineyards. In Mangalore and surrounding areas they are sold along with the creepers, the leaves and the tender stem is used in the curries while the hard part o f the stem is discarded or planted to grow more.

I did some research on the Internet and found its called by different names - Malabar spinach, Ceylon spinach, saan choy, alogbati, mong toi, Vietnamese spinach. In USA, its available in most of the Chinese/Asian supermarkets under the name mong toi.



vaaLi ambaT is a curry with coconut gravy with roasted onion seasoning. One of my favorite konkani delicacies.

1 bunch malabaar Spinach/vaaLi.
1/4 cup tuvar Dal
1 cup shredded fresh coconut
6-8 dry red chillies
1/2 inch cube tamarind
1 onion
1 tsp oil

Snip the leaves of vaaLi from the stem. Retain the stem if its tender, discard any hard stem. Wash and rinse, chop the leaves, cut the stem 3 inches long. Set aside. Finely chop half the onion for the seasoning. and the other half a bit bigger.

In a tsp of oil roast the red chillies. Grind coconut, red chillies and tamarind to a smooth paste. The masala or paste is called maasolu in konkani.

Cook tuvar dal in a pressure cooker. Transfer the dal to a sauce pan, add chopped vaaLi, cook for 10minutes till the stems are cooked. Add salt and coconut masala. Chop half the onion and add to the curry. Continue to cook for another 10minutes.

For the seasoning, finely chop the other half of onion. Fry the onions in a tsp of oil under low flame till its completely golden brown. Add to the curry, cover and set aside.

Serve with rice.

The curry can be made with spinach too. Just substitute the vaaLi with spinach. Tastes very similar, one can hardly find out the difference.

Pomfret ginger onion curry ( Alle piyav gashi)

Mangaloreans love fish. Sardines/peDvo, Pomfret/maanji, Mackerel/raaju are the mot popular fishes among the konkani's. The konkani fish curries are often made with coconut gravy, that makes it very different from other cuisines. They are a bit hot and savory taste. Alle piyav gashi one of them. In konkani alle means ginger, piyav means onion and gashi is a curry with coconut gravy.

Alle piyav gashi goes well with pomfret or crabs. This time I made it with white promfrets.

2 white pomfrets
1 cup shredded coconut
8 red chillies
1 inch cube tamarind
1 onion
2 green chillies
1/2 inch cube ginger

Clean the pomfrets. Cut of the fins and tail. If you prefer to keep the skull you may retain it. But I discard the head. That's how I was thought to clean the fish by my Mom. Discard the viscera/internal organs. Rinse thoroughly changing the water a few times. Cut the fish across the bones with 1/2- 1 inch width. Set aside

In a tsp of oil, roast the red chillies on low flame. Grind together coconut, tamarind and roasted red chillies to a smooth paste. It is very important to get a smooth paste, do not stop grinding when the coconut is coarse.

Chop onions and ginger finely. Slit green chillies

In a saucepan bring the coconut paste to a boil. Add water and bring it to the desired consistency. You can keep it to the consistency of the Dal. But not too thin. Add onions, ginger and green chillies. Boil the sauce for 5 minutes, add salt. Add the fish pieces one by one to the sauce. Cook it on low flame. Cook for about 10 minutes. Adjust salt.

Serve with rice.

Bitter Gourd Rings(karate poDi)

Bitter Gourd or Karela or Karate in konkani is a vegetable very bitter in taste as the name specifies. The Bitter Gourd available in India is a little more crisp and strong in flavour than the bitter melon available in the local American produce.

Some people do not like bitter gourd because of its taste. But try this recipe, you are sure to like it. Karate poDi is a traditional konkani dish prepared during any special occasions or on festivals.

2-3 bitter gourds
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp chilli powder
1 chickpea or chana size hing
salt to taste
oil to fry

Wash and rinse whole bitter gourd. Slice into rounds of 0.5 Cm's thick. You can make it very thin if you want to avoid the bitter taste totally. Sprinkle a little salt over the bitter gourd slices and set aside.

Dissolve hing in a tsp of water. Mix chilli powder, rice flour, hing and salt. Be careful with salt because you have already sprinkled a few on the bitter gourd. Add a little water and make a thick paste. Add the bitter gourd slices and mix well so that the paste is coated on the slices. Adjust water if the paste becomes too dry. Add rice flour if the paste is too thin.

Heat oil in a kadai/wok to about 300-350F temperature. Put one slice of bitter gourd and check if the oil sizzles and the slice floats in the oil. If not wait for sometime and check again. Add the slices one by one to the oil. Do not crowd the wok, the slices will stick to each other and you do not get rings separate. Turn the slices upside down and fry till both the sides get dark red colour.

If you do not prefer a little bitterness in the taste, then remove the poDi/rings from the oil before they tum brown. If you like the rings crispy throughout then fry till they are dark brown on both the sides. Drian all the oil on a paper towel.

Serve with rice and dal or as an appetizer.

You can poDis out of kantola or paagiLa in konkani, raw bananas, suran, drumsticks in the same way.

Mangalore Chicken Curry

Mangalore Chicken Curry with Parboiled Rice
This is one of the recipes I learnt from my Mother-in-law. She got this recipe many years back from a friend in Mangalore. This curry has no garam masala or any strong pungent flavor. The spicy and savory taste comes from freshly roasted spices and the coconut.

Here is the ingredient list
1/2 kg chicken, preferably with bones
3 medium sized onions
1/2 tsp jeera
1 coconut, shredded
3tsp oil

Ingredients for the Masala
8-12 Hot red chillies
3 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
5 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp turmeric
10 seeds of methi
6 peppercorns

Roast the ingredients listed for the masala in a tsp of oil. Let it cool. Grind into a smooth paste. Now chop 1 onion and grind along with the spices to a paste. Set aside.

Grind the shredded coconut and 1/2 tsp jeera into a smooth paste and keep set aside.

Remove the skin from the chicken pieces and discard the skin. Clean the chicken and keep it ready. In a saucepan add chicken, water and the ground spices and salt. Chop another onion and add to the chicken. Bring it to a boil, cover and cook on allow flame for 20 minutes.Add the coconut paste to the chicken and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Chop the remaining 1 onion finely, fry it in 1 tsp oil until golden brown and add to the chicken.

Serve with rice.

Dill Curry

Dill

Dill is a aromatic herb with a distinct smell and pungent flavour of its own kind. Dill is known as Suva bhaji or Sabsige soppu in Kannada. Dill can be used for garnishing soups, dals, sambars or rasam. A few sprigs of dill are enough to fill your sambar with its strong flavour. I was amazed when my friend Seema bought few bunches of Dill at the Indian Supermarket. This is the recipe I got from her.

Dill Curry with chapati

2 bunch dill leaves
5 green chillies
1/2 tsp mustard
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp mung dal

Soak mung dal in water for 30mins. Drain the water and set aside the dal. Clean and rinse dill leaves in water. Drain the water and chop the leaves. Set aside.

Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, add green chillies, add mung dal and fry till it gets light dark colour. Now add dill leaves. Add very little water. Add little salt and cover the kadai. Cook on low flame. The dill leaves on cooking wilt and the quantity reduces a lot, so be careful with the amount of salt you add. Cook for 5 minutes. Put it on a high flame to evaporate all the water.

Serve with chapati. Do not worry about the little quantity of the curry that a bunch of dill yields, the curry is very aromatic and it eats like pickle.